Author Description

Excerpt from Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences, 1926, Vol. 21 When one considers his comparative isolation and the general lack of interest in natural phenomena of the period, Doctor Allen was singularly fortunate in finding men who could give him the assistance he so eagerly sought. Shortly after meeting Horsford, a teacher took charge of the district school who possessed a broader education than anyone with whom young Allen had come in contact. A nature lover himself, he could appreciate his pupil's aspirations, and he not only assisted him in his studies, but gave him a copy of Blythe's Cuvier's Animal Kingdom. This work greatly enlarged the boy's horizon and showed his potential broadness as a naturalist. His interest in nature did not, as often happens, begin and end with birds, but plants, mammals, reptiles, fishes, insects - in short, the living world - equally appealed to him, and for years he kept a detailed record of meteorological phenomena. His first publication, indeed, was a summary from his journal of weather conditions, which appeared in the New England Farmer for 1858. Prof. Oliver Marcy followed the donor of Cuvier as the boy naturalist's friend and teacher. Later he became dean of the faculty of Northwestern University, but at that time he was the teacher of natural sciences at Wilbraham Academy, which Allen attended during the winter from 1858 to 1862. This was a productive period in his development. Under the sympathetic guidance of Professor Marcy he selected his own studies, including physiology, astronomy, chemistry, Latin, French, and German. His summers were still spent on the farm, but with Humboldt's Cosmos, Lyell's Principles of Geology, and Dana's Mineralogy for companions, it is clear that his horizon was not restricted to the hayfields. To demonstrate, however, his value as a farm hand, the far from strong boy unduly exerted himself and this, with demands made by a desire to gratify his passion for collection and st